Printing device

Abstract

A printing device produces printed pieces of paper having no blank areas, and which can precisely position print content on the back side of continuous printing paper. A mark is provided in a blank area on the back side of printing paper. A sensor senses the mark, whereby the position of a regular-form print area adjacent to the blank area on the printing paper can be recognized. A thermal head and a cutter respectively print the printing paper and cut off the blank area based on the sense output. Accordingly, it is possible to produce a printed piece of paper having a desired print on the front side and a regular-form print on the back side without positional misalignment and without blank in the feed direction, with the mark removed therefrom.

We claim:  
     
       1. A printing device for use with a continuous sheet of printing paper, wherein the front side of said printing paper is a printing surface on which a desired print is printed, and the back side thereof is an already printed surface in which regular-form print areas printed with a given print are successively provided, with positional references provided in said regular-form print areas, said printing device comprising, 
       a feeding mechanism for feed-driving said printing paper,  
       a printing mechanism provided to face the front side of said printing paper in a path in which said printing paper is fed, for printing said desired print,  
       a cutter provided on a paper-discharge side for said printing paper off from said printing mechanism,  
       a sensor provided in said path for sensing said positional reference, and  
       control means for controlling said feeding mechanism, said printing mechanism, and said cutter on the basis of a sense output from said sensor,  
       wherein said printing mechanism prints the front side of said printing paper corresponding to said regular-form print area through control by said control means, and  
       said cutter cuts off a boundary between said regular-form print areas on said printing paper through control by said control means, thereby producing a piece of paper having the desired print on the front side and the regular-form print on the back side.  
     
     
       2. The printing device according to claim  1 , wherein said printing mechanism is a thermal head having an effective heating width equal to or larger than the paper width of said printing paper. 
     
     
       3. The printing device according to claim  1 , wherein said given print in said regular-form print area is a print of a postcard surface. 
     
     
       4. The printing device according to claim  2 , wherein said given print in said regular-form print area is a print of a postcard surface. 
     
     
       5. A printing method comprising: 
       feed-driving a continuous sheet of printing paper, the printing paper having a first surface for printing and a pre-printed second surface on which pre-printed areas are intermittently provided with blank areas interposed therebetween and positional references in the blank areas;  
       printing on the first surface of the printing paper;  
       cutting the blank areas from the printing paper;  
       sensing the positional references in the blank areas on the second surface of the printing paper; and  
       controlling said feeding, printing, and cutting steps based on the results of said sensing step.  
     
     
       6. The printing method according to claim  5 , wherein 
       said feeding step feeds the printing paper in a first direction during a printing operation, and feeds the printing paper in an opposite direction to position a first cut position of the printing paper at a cutter which performs said cutting.  
     
     
       7. The printing method of claim  6 , wherein the first direction is a paper discharge direction and the opposite direction is a paper supply direction. 
     
     
       8. The printing method of claim  5 , wherein 
       said cutting step cuts the printing paper at the first cut position,  
       said feeding step feeds the printing paper in the first direction after said the cutter cuts the printing paper at the first cut position, and  
       said feeding step feeds the printing paper in the second direction after said sensing step senses a positional reference to position a second cut position of the printing paper at the cutter.